


The soul of the universe is love

by Florchis



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Astronomy Tower, F/M, First Kiss, Getting Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-16 23:45:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15448533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Florchis/pseuds/Florchis
Summary: Mack’s tutoring has helped Elena stay in the Quidditch team and win the Cup with her house. Now it’s time they talk about moving their relationship forward in the same Astronomy Tower that has seen them together so many times before.





	The soul of the universe is love

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @jemannesimms for the @aosficnet2 Midyear Exchange.

Elena realizes she has reached a point of no return the moment Daisy finally puts her down after a half-dozen of too dizzying spins and looking at Mack smiling on the bleachers is what makes her feel lightheaded.

She looks around but her teammates are too busy being lifted off the ground by their housemates. She figures she won’t be missed if she sneaks off for just a couple of minutes.

_ Just a couple of minutes.  _ She doesn’t even believe it herself, not really, but the heart wants what the heart wants, no? And after too many months of hard work, her heart deserves everything it can want and then some.

“Congratulations, Scarlet Flash.” His voice is warm, and an uncontainable smile lights up her face. The nickname of his making has flown through all the castle, and now that her chasing skills had been fundamental in Gryffindor winning the Quidditch Tournament, she can only expect to hear it in every corner and at any given opportunity.

And yet, it is also something that is theirs, a part of his kindness that she gets to carry with her everywhere, a well-known secret that is private and cherished.

“Come on, Turtle Man, I know you can do better than that.”

He looks at her intensely for a couple of seconds, and for every one, her heart thumps loudly inside her chest.

Anticipation. Thump.

Longing. Thump.

Affection. Thump.

Camaraderie. Thump.

Desire. Thump.

“Come here.” He finally beacons her with his hand, and Elena follows it like a Lumos Charm in the darkest of nights. His arms envelop her, and Elena sighs against his chest, everything warm and smelling like his cologne. It’s not for this that she worked so hard and that she  _ won, _ but this is certainly a nice bonus. “Congratulations again. You truly deserve this.” She is about to say something back, looking up at him, when he gently pushes her apart and she frowns. “You know, I put a hefty sum on you.” With a blinding grin on his face, Mack opens his robes slightly to show her his sweater, and the scarlet button pinned there.

Elena gapes at him, not because of the button, that is a sweet detail, but because of what he just said.

“Alphonso Mackenzie, no, you didn’t!”

“Oh, yes, I did.”

Her blood is rushing in her veins, so fast that it makes a dull sound on her ears. She likes him because he is proper and righteous, but she also likes him because he can surprise her like this. 

“What would you do if I were to snitch you to McGonagall, eh?” She mocks outrage, a hand on her chest. “That her precious Head Boy is mingling with gambling! On school property nonetheless!”

He chuckles but hasn’t let go entirely of her waist yet, and Elena’s thumping restarts.

“First, you were worth the risk. Second, I’m not daft enough to do it under my name, duh. Hunter took care of that. And, third, you are not gonna snitch me out, are you, Elena?” 

His eyes are always warm and kind around her, and they have a special power to make her stomach feel full of billywigs, but right now there is also a hint of mischief there. Is he, perhaps, daring her to do something about it? Because, oh, she so wants to do something about it, and so far has only refrained herself on his behalf, because she doesn’t call him _Turtle Man_ for anything.

“Probably not.” She waits till the corner of his mouth is starting to tick up into his characteristic lopsided smile to keep talking. “I mean, on one condition, of course.”

She makes sure to show in her gaze all the fire she is feeling inside her lungs, and she could almost swear that his breath hitches under the weight of it.

“And what that would be?”

“I still need help with my Astronomy final.” For an instant, she can see his face falling, and it makes her heart soar; he composes himself quickly, but the way he let go of her waist like her robes were on fire is an easy telltale of disappointment. “Meet you this night at ten?”

Always the gentleman, he gives her a tight smile, though she can tell it’s fake.

“Aren’t you going to be celebrating with your housemates?”

She shrugs, playing nonchalance. 

“As my abuela always said, niña, los estudios primero.”

She runs back into the field, towards his exalted teammates, without looking back. She can feel his eyes boring holes in her back, and not for nothing they call her  _ The Scarlet Flash _ because she can not wait.

* * *

She waits until the butterbeer has flown abundantly around the Common Room to try to make her escape. She can not say she is exactly surprised when Daisy is waiting for her just outside of The Fat Lady painting.

“Bored of the party already?”

Elena rolls her eyes; she has been made, and there is no use in denying anything now.

“I have a meeting.”

Daisy bares her teeth in a grin. There is still some mud on her hair and her forehead from the match, and it makes her look a little feral. It is a good look on her.

“Let’s call it what it is, Elena: you have a date.”

If it were anyone other than Daisy, she would deny it or claim that it’s nobody’s business but her own. But  _ it is  _ Daisy, who is tightly entangled in both her life and Mack’s. Also, it clearly doesn’t matter what she says: Daisy already knows.

But defiance is such an integral part of her personality that Elena can not help the way she replies. 

“What if I do?”

Daisy’s eyebrows rise in surprise, but her face immediately softens.

“Come here.”

Elena follows her towards the stairs, without a clue of what Daisy has in mind. Daisy gestures for her to sit on the second step while she sits on the top one. Elena checks nervously her clock: she has some time to spare, but not too much, and she was counting with a couple of minutes to tidy herself up after the adventure that is navigating Hogwarts’ corridors at night.

“Daisy, what-?”

“Shhh. Let me do my thing.”

She gently removes the hair band that is barely holding Elena’s ponytail and starts carding her fingers through her hair. Elena sighs and relaxes instantly. It’s been a while since someone has touched her this gently, and nowadays she doesn’t have much time to do her hair properly. When Daisy starts braiding it carefully, she has to make use of all her self-control to not start shaking.

“Everyone and their mother knows he is head over heels for you, Elena, but that doesn’t mean we won’t make you look your best. We want his wand to fall out of his pocket just at the sight of you.”

She doesn’t mention that Mack is too careful to carry his wand on his pocket because Daisy knows. She appreciates the sentiment nonetheless.

Daisy murmurs something under her breath with a flick of her wand, and the smell of jasmine overflows Elena’s senses. Daisy places the flower on the end of the braid and then pats Elena on the back, her smile obvious on her voice, “There. He won’t know what hit him.”

Elena turns around and hugs Daisy tightly.

“Gracias.”

Daisy pats her on the back. 

“You are welcome? I mean, I am assuming you said thank you, because you know I’m incapable of understanding any spanish.”

Elena rolls her eyes at her.

“That’s because you don’t want to learn, not because you can’t!”

“Yeah, well, I have plenty of other, more interesting, things to learn.” She winks, and Elena guffaws. She can either mean Trip, or a new beating technique, or a way to improve her Patronus. It doesn’t matter, all of them are very intrinsically  _ Daisy.  _ “Besides, that leaves the _ language of love _ for just you and Mack to share.”

“Isn’t  _ French  _ supposed to be the language of love?”

Elena, focused as she were on Daisy, almost draws out her wand at the sound of the not unknown, but unexpected voice. Instead, she turns around to welcome the smiling face of the person to thank for all the gang passing their Potions O.W.L.’s. 

“Hi, Simmons.”

“Congratulations on the game, Elena, you really were outstanding. Also, you look  really nice.”

Leave it to Simmons to be able to spew more compliments than minutes she has been here.

“Thanks.”

There is a small, tense moment of silence, where Elena looks from Daisy to Simmons until Daisy breaks it. 

“You.” She presses a finger against Elena’s chest. “Out to see your man. You.” She takes one of Jemma’s hands. “With me?”

Simmons follows her willingly, and gives Elena a smile and a little wave when she passes her, “Good luck with Mack!”

Elena watches them perplexed for a couple of seconds, and then frowns, “What are you two going to do?”

“Sneak Simmons inside the Gryffindor Tower, of course,” Daisy says it like it is obvious. “I’m gonna do the honors because Fitz is too chicken to do it himself.”

“The Fat Lady it’s gonna get mad como araña mala.”

Simmons looks distressed at the idea, but Daisy waves off Elena’s concern, “I have seen worse.” She turns on her most compelling smile, and points to her left wrist, where she is not wearing any watch, with a finger that somehow looks accusatory, “Isn’t time for your date already, Elena?”                 

Right. She can hear the stories about how this plan failed spectacularly later.  But right now she can not wait to knock the wand off of an amazing man.

“Not that I need it, but wish me luck, ladies!”

By the time she is hit with Jemma’s  _ Be safe _ and Daisy’s  _ Go get some _ , she is already putting to good use her proverbial speed. 

* * *

She is not exactly late, but she doesn’t arrive first like she had planned. While she is trying to catch her breath, she doesn’t find it in herself to be upset, not when she enters the Tower of Astronomy and is greeted by the sight of Mack leaning over his telescope, adjusting the lenses. his robe lifted on one side, because of the roll of parchment he is carrying on the back pocket of his trousers.

It’s a sight to behold, and one she has been blessed to witness many times during the last year, and it forces her to stop for a minute and think about how much this place, this moment, this man, mean for her.  She was planning on making sort of a big display of flirting and teasing, enough to let him know that she appreciates him going slow, but that there is going slow, and then there is  _ this. _  But now she is feeling the full gravitas of the moment, the fact that this is her sweet Mack, that has been supportive and affectionate and funny with her for the last three years, and one of her most treasured friends; she is more or less head over heels in love with him, but she doesn’t want to lose him if something goes wrong. This is a big moment, a decisive one no matter the outcome, and Elena wrings nervously between her fingers the end of her braid.

“Hi, Mack.”

He turns around and the moment he sees her, his smile turns on his entire face; Elena feels her heart galloping on her chest in response to that.

“Hi yourself. I just got a great view of Neptune, wanna watch?”

She shrugs, the words sticking to her throat; she feels that if she speaks she would confess her love without any other preamble. By the moment she is leaning over the telescope and his warm hand is on top of hers, helping her adjust the lenses to her height, she realizes  _ that  _ was the point of this whole scheme

She is not seeing anything, the warmth of his hand on her hip way too distracting for her to focus on anything else and, after all, she has never not been brave, and this is not a moment to change. She turns around to face him, but he doesn’t move, leaving just a couple inches between his chest and hers, and this must be how a Jelly-Legs jinx feels like.

She can see that his eyes are soft even in the mid-dark, and her hands itch to touch the short stubble growing on his cheeks. She had a  _ plan _ , mierda, a plan to utterly seduce him to the point where putting on the brakes was not an option anymore, and now she is the one with a tied tongue just looking at his lips.    

“I already passed my Astronomy final,” she blurts out and winces immediately after. So much for smooth and suave.

Mack chuckles a low sound that makes Elena’s heart soar.

“I know.” This is the decisive moment, Elena thinks, and yet, after coming clean with the truth, Mack has not taken a step back or removed his hand, but he has neither said anything else. 

Elena takes a tiny step forward, encouraged by his eyes that are not leaving her lips either, and tries to push the situation a little further.

“And yet, here you are, Head Boy and everything, willing to get into trouble for me.”

Mack doesn’t reply for a long time, his eyes looking to a point just above her shoulder, but when Elena takes another step in his direction, his other hand moves automatically to her hip. 

“That I am,” he says finally, and his voice is trembling, his eyes full of emotion when they finally meet hers. “You asked, and I always go where you ask.”

Elena moves to her tiptoes, but she still needs him to meet her in the middle, both because she can not reach his lips without him crouching a little, and also because she needs to be sure that they are both in the same page before doing anything else.

“That sounds like a big deal to me.” 

She is waiting for him to take the final step, but since patience is not one of her best qualities, she asks “Can I kiss you?”, at the same time that Mack breathes out, “It is.”

He leans over and finally kisses her, the palm of his hand finding the center of her back to help her keep the tense position, and without a thought, Elena melts in his arms, focusing only on the taste and the movement of his lips against hers. He maneuvers both of them until they are both sitting on the floor, his back against the wall and Elena on her lap. He is solid and firm under her lips and her legs, smelling of shampoo and ink, and the soft glimmer of the stars makes his skin look smooth as marble.  She sighs against his mouth, content and warm, and thinking that  _ this- _ and not winning the Inter-House Quidditch Cup- is probably the best thing that has come out of him offering to tutor her so she could keep her place on the team.

His arms are wrapped tightly around her body, and she finds out that his stubble is exactly as pleasurable on her skin as she imagined, and that for everything that it has taken them  _ centuries  _ to get to this point, he is more than okay to follow her lead now, kissing her hard and deep, one of his hands softly stroking the flower on her hair, his other thumb drawing circles on her cheek.

Eventually, she breaks the kiss, only to move her lips across his cheeks, his nose, his eyelids, to find the sensible spots on his neck, until she murmurs on her ear, “Why did we wait so long to do this?”

It’s just an off-hand comment, but he goes stiff under her weight, and Elena immediately moves her head away to look at him. His lips are trembling, and there is a furrow on his brow that she would like to kiss away. He inhales deeply and moves his hands from her back to holding hers, and her stomach sinks.  

“Elena, I like you a lot, that is very much obvious.” She doesn’t reply, because what is obvious is that there is a  _ but  _ coming there. “But… is this really worth it?” They both wince, and he reformulates,  “I mean, I’m graduating, and you still have another year to go. We are way too young for a long-distance relationship. What is the point of starting something that can not take us anywhere?”

She considers his words, his face a picture perfect of concern and sorrow. She understands now why their relationship has been this way, considering their opposed mindsets: she always has her feet in the future and her heart in the present, while Mack walks slowly in the present with his mind worrying about the future. He has put a lot of thought into this, which shows that he cares about this a big deal; she can put her foot down and let him know that he is not wrong, but also that they can be  _ right. _

“Hey, hey, hey. There is no need to panic. Mírame a los ojos.” She places her hands on his cheeks, and he follows her instructions. She feels powerful, this man that is grand both inside and out letting himself be vulnerable with her. “You can’t let fear of the future ruin something that has not even started yet. That is not the Alphonso Mackenzie I know.” She brushes her thumbs against his cheeks in a soothing gesture. His eyes are shining, both from unshed tears and from hope, and she smiles. “If it’s worth it, we’ll figure it out. And I think we deserve at least a chance. I  _ want  _ a chance with you.”

He makes a sound that is half a chuckle and half a sob, and draws her closer until their foreheads are touching.

“Do you, um, do you mean it?”

It wasn’t part of her plan to be quite this open about the intensity of her feelings, but being blunt is part of her nature, and if he needs the reassurance, she is not gonna lie to him; they might be young, but she knows what she wants, and she knows how much work she is willing to do to get it.

Instead of replying, she kisses him again, a closed-mouthed kiss that is at the same time sweet and strong. When she pulls apart, the lines of worry on his face are starting to fade. 

“I really, really do.”

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of LLF Comment Project, whose goal is to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites:
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